Archive for the ‘Truckee CA’ Tag
Sunny skies on Sunday at Tahoe
Yes, it’s that time of year again. When crisp mornings are followed by warm afternoons, and the bright yellow leaves of the aspens and cottonwoods shine brightly against the deep blue skies. But then, just when you are nicely lulled into complacency with the beauty of autumn, the snows of winters arrive, usually with a vengeance with just a day or two of warning. Will you be ready?
-Are the hoses disconnected and stowed away? Has the sprinkler system been turned off and drained?
-Is everything out of the yard that you don’t want covered in snow for the next six months? Kayaks? Lawn chairs? Planters? Bike racks?
-Do you have all your firewood stacked and ready to be easily accessed so you can stoke the flames of winter?
-Has your heater been serviced?
-Have you installed a stop and drain valve to easily shut off the water in your house when you leave for an extended period?
-Have you reorganized your garage so that you can actually get a car in there? And does that car have its winter tires on? Do you need new windshield wipers?
-Is the snow blower ready to go, or the snow poles installed along the driveway so the snow plow company won’t dig up your landscaping?
-And where is that @#*& snow shovel and snow and ice scraper?
View from my office this morning!
Phew, you’ve finished those pesky chores. Now you just have one more fun step before winter. Go shopping. Can’t find your warm gloves and need to get another pair? What about that jacket that died in April? Now’s the time, and the local businesses would love to see you come walking in the door. Or better yet look up the local ski swaps. I’ll have information on ski swaps later in the week so check back in a few days.
Finally, satisfied that you are ready, it’s time to sit back, relax and dream of what that fresh dumping of new snow will bring you: Is it a smooth glide across Euer Valley, or would you prefer to catch a view of Tahoe as you make your turns from the top of the Sherwood Chair? Or perhaps your dream is simply sipping on a hot toddy, sitting close to the crackling fire, and watching the big flakes float to the ground.
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Roughing It
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Living at the Lake Tahoe basin, you’ll get no argument from me that we’re living in God’s Country. But every once in awhile, you just plain and simply need a little change of pace.
Towards that end, my parents own some property in Graeagle…and by property, I mean just that. Thirty acres of dirt and trees with no house on it. We use it as a sort of family ‘camping ground’. To create our personal, semi permanent yet private outdoor resort, a camper trailer complete with kitchen is hauled in for the season. It sits near more permanent and comfortable ‘fixtures’ on the property, (by which I mean bathroom facilities) of a rather dubious and unorthodox nature, but for which their installation makes for a much more pleasant camping experience. ( Ugh! Who can stomach port-o-potties first thing in the morning? No thank you…)
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A Room with a View?
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Outdoor kitchen/vanity
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Graeagle is about one hour from Truckee, and is perfect for a quick get away. The town is small but quaint, complete with golf courses, restaurants, shops and mill pond for swimming. Hiking and horseback riding is never far away, and there are historical sites in the area to explore as well.
This summer I invited some friends from my AAUW group (American Association of University Women) to spend the night at my family’s little hide-away for our monthly gourmet night. Now the main purpose of AAUW is to raise money to help young girls with academic scholarships and educational opportunities (which we do and support); but really – and who are we kidding here? – the gourmet group’s real reason for existence is just an excuse to get together once a month and cook some incredibly diverse and fantastic food, eat, drink and be merry. We just bring money along to donate to ‘the cause’ while we’re at it.
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Most of the gals slept in tents strewn around the parameter of the property. We cooked, we drank, we ate, we talked, we sat around the campfire, we ate some more…
And as often happens when there is that much good food and wine around, we never did get around to playing on the campsite’s woodland version of a bocce ball court…although in all fairness, I do believe someone’s cot was straddling the middle of it.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it…
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To learn more about Graeagle and the surrounding area, click on the links below.
http://www.playgraeagle.com/
http://www.graeagle.com/
http://graeagleplumas.com/
To learn more about AAUW and/or to find a chapter in your area, click below:
http://www.aauw.org/
If you would like to join the Truckee Chapter of AAUW, contact me at: lynn.richardson@camoves.com
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Recently I was speaking with a client of mine about the migration of the Monarch Butterfly. He asked if I had seen them this year since he was hoping to time their migration over the Sierras. Several times I have seen the Monarch Butterfly’s migration here at Tahoe/Truckee, a path that seems to run right along the Hwy 267 corridor and over the Sierras. Although catching them in the act is often a catch as catch can scenario, I have been fortunate enough to witness this phenomenon while I was traversing between Truckee and Lake Tahoe. Sometimes it’s a few here and there flitting amongst the plants at Northstar, and sometimes it feels like a blizzard of butterflies swirling around my car in a thick, ethereal dance of black and orange gossamer wings.
The Monarch Butterfly migrates back to its wintering grounds in Mexico, where it will spend winter’s frigid months. Recent reports claim that the Monarch is having a rough year of it, with their numbers not what they normally are. I haven’t been traversing Hwy 267 recently, so I couldn’t tell you if that claim seems true or not, and like I said, it’s a catch as catch can thing anyway. But for those of you out and about enjoying the fall colors, be sure to be on the look out for these beautiful creatures. Who doesn’t feel pleasantly serene when a butterfly crosses your path?
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Arrival at wintering grounds in Mexico
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For more images of the Monarch butterfly migration or to read more about the plight of the Monarch butterfly, and what you can do to help, go to these links:
http://www.pri.org/stories/2013-09-30/monarchs-were-missing-summer-and-we-and-weather-were-blame
National Geographic
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/gallery_mx.html
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YOUR FRIEND IN HIGH PLACES 